X Men: The Next Generation
by iKatie
Summary: A new school year, a new group of X Students, and a whole new set of dramatics. What could possibly go wrong? Have fun, dear readers! Ignore whatever you learned about the X Timeline, because this is completely different. T means language!
1. New Rooms & New Rules

Dun dun dunnaaaaaaaa

New story?! First chapter?!

YEAHBUHWHA?!

Oh yes. Don't worry kiddies, stick with me through the frequent bouts of writers block, and occasional mental breakdowns, and I promise you one hell of a ride, 'kay?

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own, or pretend to own the X-Men. All rights to Marvel. I also do not pretend to own any OC's (Used with gracious permission from my favourite people) besides Angele and Ariel. Because I own them._

**Chatper One is Dedicated to: **_TNG_ - For reminding me what fun was, and giving me the best summer of my life. You bitches made me nocturnal, and I'd do it all over again without a doubt.

* * *

**Chapter One: New Rooms & New Rules**

_"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another."  
-Anatole France_

She really couldn't believe she was actually here. It had been the longest flight she had ever experienced; flying away from everything she had ever known and loved. When she landed, there had been a taxi waiting for her. She didn't ask how, she was sure the school had arranged it somehow. And then…she got here, and that was that. It was weird how nobody had said anything to her…Then again, it was the middle of the day, and everybody was probably in class. Angele Marie Ritaka dropped her bags on the ground in the middle of the room that was hers for…well, she didn't know how long. Her parents said she could come back at anytime if she wanted to. She didn't really believe them, because she was sure the moment she showed any signs of homesickness, and called home, they'd try and talk her into saying. It was for the best they said; she could learn some control. She had agreed to it first, because it sounded like a good deal. But she honestly hadn't realized how…far it was. She felt like she was another galaxy away, not just a few thousand miles, or a 15-hour plane flight. Angele glanced at her watch, sighing softly. It was still set on Egyptian time. Everybody at home was sleeping. She wondered if they missed her as much as she missed them. Probably not.

With a glance around the rather bare room, she hauled one of her suitcases up onto the empty bed and popped it open. Well, it wasn't that bad, all things considered. She had a private room at least, and a closet and her own bathroom. That didn't sound that horrible, did it? She half wished she did have a roommate. Maybe it would be easier to make friends then, because she honestly didn't know how she was going to do it now. She never had trouble at home, but…that was at home. Home was easier than this. With a small groan, she dumped the first pile of socks and underwear into an opened drawer, not bothering to arrange them. She wasn't a neat freak, she didn't care what order they went in, honestly. She just wanted to get this unpacked and out of her way. To help remind her that this was permanent. No, really, it was. And as soon as she convinced herself of that fact, her life would go a lot easier. A yawn escaped her pink lips, and she stretched her arms out. And, by accident, her snowy white wings stretched out as well, although thankfully not to their full span. She would've knocked over the lamp on the other side of the room if they were fully grown. Angele winced slightly, pushing away the memories of having to cut off her own wings in the middle of the night, after hearing her parents deliberate about how to get her on the plane. That had been painful. She didn't want to think about that anymore. She shuddered simply remembering it.

"Ugh…" Angele pushed the first emptied suitcase off her bed and onto the floor with a small 'wumph' noise. She was reserving her judgment on this place. It wasn't horrible so far…but it wasn't great. It was gonna take something big to change her mind. She let out another sigh, her great white wings flexing restlessly again. Flying. Usually, flying cleared her mind. Somehow, it was easier to think when you were coasting above everybody below you, and your problems…well, they stayed Earth-bound. She let out another miserable moan. She couldn't go flying in the middle of the day here, too many people around. Back home, she just had to set out for the desert, and she could be alone for hours. Here…Too many cities, too many people. Make no mistake; Angele was somewhat excited to be in the United States. Big cities were not something she got to hang around all the time. But she would like it better if it was more of a vacation than a permanent living situation.

A few more moments of feelings sorry for herself later, and she pushed her face up and off the bedspread, wiping at her eyes hastily. This was certainly going to be harder than she had expected. Her parents had built it up, and they made it sound so easy. Just…move away from home. Everybody did it eventually; she was just going to have to start early. They knew she would be fine, and they said she was mature enough and although they would miss her very much, this was the best thing for her. She wasn't so sure. Angele had felt somewhat better when they told her she was mature enough for this…But she wasn't. She was only 16 for Christ's sake; she wanted to be an immature little teenager for just a little bit longer! Was that too much to ask?

Dragging a hand through her waist length blond locks, she took a peek at herself in the mirror. Her eyes looked faintly red-rimmed, although she was sure if she took a few moments, she could cover that up. Oh the miracles of make up. Never to be underestimated. Pulling open another suitcase on the floor, she searched around for a few moments, before coming up with her make up case. Tip toeing across the room for whatever reason, she slid into her new bathroom, flicking on the light. It was rather…bare. She'd have to get towels…ick, and a new shower curtain. Setting the case on the counter, she unzipped it, sifting through the contents for a few moments. Sighing again, her hand emerged, clutching her cover-up for her pale skin. She flipped open the compact, leaning towards the mirror. Angele wished she had her lighted mirror here...too bad she left it at home. Rubbing her finger in the middle of the creamy concoction, she smeared some on her face, trying to even out her pale complexion. She smiled faintly, remembering what her parents said about her skin. Her mother teased that an Egyptian born girl shouldn't have to wear so much sun screen outside. Angele just teased back that she wasn't Egyptian, and it wasn't her fault if her parents had an albino child. It was partially true at least, she was an Egyptian citizen, but her parents were both American. Archaeologists, supported by a university. They did work, and occasionally taught students who enrolled in the program. Angele's parents had lived in Egypt since before she was born, and besides the one year on sabbatical they did when she was 9, she had never experienced what it was like to live in the states. That, was obviously, about to change.

Absently dropping the compact back into her make up bag after she was finished with it, she reached for her eye shadow. She didn't even know why she was doing this. It's not like she planned on leaving her room until she absolutely was forced out. And that wouldn't be easy. She did hear they had a person who could walk through walls though...Hm.

She was startled out of her plans soon-to-be-set-in-motion for never leaving her room by a knock on the door. Dropping her eye shadow before she even got a chance to crack it open, Angele spent the next ten seconds panicking.

"Uh...Just a minute!" Folding her wings tightly against her back instinctively, she darted towards the door, leaving her make up bag in the middle of her bathroom. Clearing her throat, and glancing in the mirror to make sure she looked presentable before she opened the door, she smoothed down her hair, determined to make a good impression. Now...all she had to do was pull open the door, and...

_Knock, knock, knock._

The person on the other side of the door was evidently not very patient. Or Angele might have just been taking a very long time to open the door. Trying to keep her wings from starting to flutter about nervously, she placed her hand on the door knob, twisted it, and opened it. She stared--flat out stared--at the incredibly good looking boy standing in the doorway. Oh my. He was tall, with brown eyes and dark skin. If Angele wasn't such a sensible young girl, she would've fallen head over flippin' heels.

She was only slightly flustered. The boy looked amused, leaning against her door frame casually, waiting for her to say something. Angele realized that she had been standing there without saying a word for entirely too long.

"Um...Hi!" She flashed a bright smile. Too bright? Wincing inwardly, she shrunk against her heavy wooden door, trying to not look so entirely foolish.

The boy chuckled, straightening out his posture. "Hi." Pushing up his orange glasses on his nose, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "Angele, right?"

Angele nodded slowly, becoming slightly less insecure. Okay, cool, he hadn't laughed at her outright yet. "Um...Yeah..."

The boy nodded, as if reassuring himself of something. "Okay, good, I'm the student rep. I'm supposed to help new students with questions and getting settled in and stuff. So...have any?"

Angele blinked at the boy slowly for a moment, trying to process. Her thoughts were rather interrupted by how _incredibly _good this boy was looking right now. "I guess...Where--"

"David!"

The boy in the doorway, who was apparently named David, turned around abruptly, eying an Asian girl storming down the hall towards him. Gleaming metal gauntlets crawled up her arms, ending right above her elbows. What should have been black hair had been artificially dyed an eye catching bright blue. And she looked mad. The African-American boy standing in front of her door winced a little bit, muttering something under his breath. "Nori, there you are."

"There _I _am?! Did you totally space out about our Danger Room session?! You're way late!" Nori paused two feet away, putting her metallic hands on her slim hips, a deep frown creasing her face. "They sent _me_ out to get you, and now we're both going to be late." Her tone seemed to include a general 'thanks a **lot**' with every word she spoke. Noriko Ashida was obviously not happy. Her glare directed at David, wavered only a moment to re-direct itself at Angele, who was blushing furiously at having to witness this quarrel. She shrank back from the girl's glare, wishing that she could just shut the door.

David sighed, all attention directed away from Angele. Jesus, he really had to work hard to keep up with his girlfriend sometimes. "Sorry Nori, I must've misread the board."

Nori snorted derisively, her arms crossed over her chest. "David, you're the only one who knows how to work the bulletin board!" Stupid fancy technology. The hologram bulletin board installed by Sage at the end of last year plagued the students to no end. Especially Nori. Half the time, she couldn't get near the thing without shorting it out.

David rolled his eyes, "Only when Tessa's around." Duh.

Angele blinked again, watching the exchange. After spending a few moments deciphering what exactly they were talking about (She had head Professor Xavier briefly touch upon it when he was giving his spiel to her parents, but no more than that), she found herself wondering what this pair could do in terms of powers. She would have to ask that of everybody, wouldn't she? It was going to be so hard to try and keep up with who could do what...Sigh.

Without even realizing it, she had zoned out while standing in her doorway, and was abruptly brought back to reality by David snapping his fingers in her face. "Hey, angel-girl. I'm _supposed_ to be the student liaison for new kids this week, but I've got to go now. In 10 minutes, downstairs, there's going to be an orientation for everybody that's arrived this week. Try to make it, okay? I'll see you later."

Angele nodded silently, afraid to say anything else and invoke another wrath-filled glance from the boys' girlfriend. Waving a little, she attempted a brave smile, watching David walk away down the hallway, taking Nori's elbow, and leaning in to whisper something in her ear that made her blush, and smile, although she seemed half annoyed that he even managed to get that out of her.

Siiiiiigh. She shut the door slowly, her mind working to figure out what she was going to be doing. Okay. Orientation. With other people. But they would all be new, so that would be okay, right? Right. Maybe they'd be easier to make friends with that way, because none of them would know anybody else. So now...Angele looked down at herself, mentally inspecting her outfit. Well, it would never do. First of all, she had been traveling in it, on a plane and a car and...Well, it was wrinkled, and smelly. So that would have to change. She glanced up into a mirror, wishing she had time for a shower. But that was always an ordeal...So not now. Outfit change, make up, do _something_ with her hair, and then wing it.

No pun intended.

* * *

No less than eleven minutes later, Angele softly padded her way down the grand wooden steps of the Xavier Mansion's front foyer. Dressed in a pale pink ruffle skirt, and pastel yellow tank top, with a pair of cheap plastic flip-flops. A small smear of gold eye shadow, a little bit of Kohl eyeliner, and that was all she had time for. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she paused, biting down on her lip. Okay, so she was downstairs...then what? She realized that David had left without giving her instructions on where to go, or...what room Orientation was in. Great. That was just...great. Sighing, Angele pondered her options, and came up with...next to nothing. It was basically stick her head into every room she came across and hope that somebody would mention the fact that _this _was the orientation room, or...go back upstairs and hide. And probably get in trouble when she did something wrong, after not learning the rules, because she hadn't been at orientation. 

Ugh. Life sucked.

Trying her best to stay as quiet as possible, Angele left the bottom of the stairs and proceeded down the hallway, occasionally glancing into a room. She walked past the living room, with some kids sitting in front of a TV, playing a Nintendo Wii. A shouting match broke out as one boy accused another of cheating, and yelled something about 'stupid technopaths!'

Angele moved past the living room quickly. Sighing, she peeked in another room, trying her best to do so without being noticed. God forbid somebody peg her as the new girl. Although by the way she was walking, and checking every room, they probably already had. Glancing around the latest room, she spotted a group of about 10 other people, sitting in chairs. One or two had books, almost all of them had headphones of some sort, and none of them were talking. Something...something just lead her to believe that this just might be the orientation room.

That and the sign that said orientation on the table.

Angele pushed the door open a little wider, and stepped inside the room. All the heads turned towards her, studying, judging, decided and drawing conclusions all within the space of a second, before most of the pairs of eyes returned to what they were doing before. All but two. Angele winced slightly, her wings fluttering nervously. Glancing around, without really looking at any of the people, she took the first seat she could find, one that was located near the front of the room, two empty spots away from a girl with green hair and almost orange skin, who was currently bopping her head along to the beat of her green iPod, reading a comic book (maybe it was a Manga? Angele couldn't tell from her angle…and she was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyways). Angele bit down on her lip again, folding her hands together tightly in her lap. She didn't know how long they were supposed to be here…And she had no idea how long anybody else had been here for. She glanced down at her watch, before remembering that it was still set on Egyptian time. So she had no idea what time it was here. She'd have to remember to fix that. Before she got a chance to lean over and ask somebody else, there was a sudden "bamf!" at the front of the room, and a small cloud of purple smoke.

Startled out of her wits by the sudden appearance of a blue-skinned man, with a woman clad entirely in white, Angele's wings gave another nervous flutter, extending themselves outwards. Luckily enough, she caught on in time, before they could throw the green-haired girl out of her seat. Drawing them tightly against her again, she whispered an apology, acutely aware of the other eyes on her in the room. Especially the cold eyes of the woman up front.

Emma Frost stared down at her newest crop of students with a faint smirk.

_Excellent job Kurt. I believe that entrance works every time. _

The blue man beside Emma beamed down at the students. Despite looking much less approachable, and much more demonic, he exuded a sort of friendliness and sense of warmth that the striking woman beside him lacked. It would just take a bit of open-mindedness on the students' part before they realized that.

_Meine pleasure, freundin, as always. _

Kurt gave another sweeping smile to the room, before he "bamf"ed away again, leaving behind another small cloud of purple smoke, and the faint scent of brimstone.

Emma Frost stayed silent for another few moments, studying the students before her. After the first 30 seconds, most, if not all of them, started to squirm just a little in their seats. Her smirk shifted into more of a smile, as though satisfied. Relaxing her stiff posture only slightly, she crossed her arms behind her back, lifting her head.

"Hello, and welcome to the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. All of you in this room are here for one reason and one reason alone. You are different. You are mutants. Some of you are more obvious than others. Welcome to where you belong." She turned, pacing across the front of the room, waiting for a moment to allow her words to sink in. Dramatic effect was always her forte.

"First order of business. The new school year at Xavier's starts in two weeks, on September 4th. During school days, in the mornings for the first semester, you will be doing training sessions in various parts of the mansion, split up based upon your powers. Those who demonstrate superior control will be sorted into squads at the beginning of the second semester. Those who need some more help with their powers will stay with their groups. In the afternoons, the Institute offers a wide variety of normal classes, such as English, Math, Science, and etcetera. We will do our best to match you up with the class that best befits you, taking into consideration where you are from, and what the school system is like there. All your courses are valid for going on to earning your university degree, do not worry about that.

"While you are here, the conduct expected of you, inside and outside the Mansion, _especially_ outside the mansion, is nothing less than your best. You are representatives of the Xavier Institute, and of mutants. Please, try to keep us in good graces with our neighbours. Drugs, alcohol, and gratuitous public displays of affection will not be tolerated. Using your powers in the halls between classes, and with the intent of violence against another person will _not _be tolerated. Please, do not test our patience. You will find we have very little of it."

Emma paused in her pacing, turning to face the upturned faces of the relatively young children now in her care. Half of them looked excited. The other half looked like they just might puke. Another smile tugged at her lips, and she flicked some blonde hair out of her eyes. "Now that we have rules out of the way, I suggest we get on with introductions. I'm Miss Frost, Headmaster of the institute. Telepath." She nodded in the direction of the girl with green hair to Angele's right. "Name, age, power, and where you come from, if you please."

The girl glanced up, shutting the book, and tugging a white ear bud away from her ear. "Ariel, 15, teleportation, New Hampshire." She glanced around, Angele noticing the spiral earrings that dangled from her ears, before Ariel shrugged.

Emma watched the girl for a moment, before nodding. "…Sprite."

Ariel blinked, looking faintly surprised. Emma grinned, displaying a row of perfect white teeth. "Your codename. If you have a problem with it, see me after this."

Ariel simply blinked again. Blushing faintly (Which, unfortunately, clashed horribly with her skin AND hair at the same time), she glanced down at her book again, determined not to say anything else for the time being. At least not in the presence of Miss Frost.

Angele gulped silently once she realized she was next. Clearing her throat, she twisted her fingers about for a moment, temporarily forgetting all the information asked of her, in light of her panic at having to speak in front of this formidable woman, never mind the rest of her new classmates.

_Please God, don't let my voice crack, please, please, please, please! _

"Uhmm…Angele, 16, flight and…light manipulation, I think somebody called it? and…I come from Egypt…" She kept her eyes downcast, and her face turned firmly towards her lap, blushing, and refusing to look up at anyone. _I'm so lame._

"Seraph." Emma's business-like voice paid no heed to the embarrassment Angele was currently feeling. The girl would get over it soon enough, as would everybody else in this room. "Next."

"Dimitri, 16, water manipulation, New York State." Angele glanced to her left, watching the boy lounge lazily in his chair. He glanced over at her once, but quickly looked away when he spotted her watching him. She blushed again, watching for the next person. If she was going to spend the next year with most, if not all of these people, she might as well get to know them.

"Whirlpool. Next."

"Gabriel, 18, flight and concussive blasts, Italy." Angele's eyes widened when she realized that she was not the only one in the room with wings. Somebody else had wings! She had been so tied up in her own little world of misery that she hadn't even noticed. She bit back a happy little giggle, at the fact that she wasn't alone. She wasn't alone!

"Sonicboom. Next."

"Vince, 17, wind manipulation, England."

"Vortex."

And so the pattern continued, until everyone in the room had given out just a little bit of information about themselves, and received a code name, via Emma Frost. Some of the students looked rather disgruntled about it; they had been sure that they would've been allowed to choose their own code name. No matter though, what was done was done. Anyone with complaints could report to Miss. Frost. And _nobody_ wanted to do that. Of course, she already knew. But the students hadn't been there long enough to know that. Ah well. They'd figure it out soon enough. Everyone did. Making her way through the hap-hazard maze of chairs, Miss Frost stood beside the doorway, addressing the group as a whole yet again.

"Today is the first day and therefore the hardest. I implore you all to stay on your best behavior, and do your best not to antagonize the other students. Your schedules for school will be posted on your doors the moment they are printed, and if there are any problems, please come find me, or Miss Tessa, who will be glad to help you."

With another smile curiously lacking in warmth, Miss Frost opened the door to the hallway, inclining her head at the motley group in front of her. "Welcome to Xaviers' students, and I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay."

The formidable and intimidating woman stepped outside of the small room, and shut the door firmly behind her. The students left in the room all stared at each other for a moment. Angele chewed on her lip again, mostly to keep herself from chewing on her nails, a nervous habit that went along with her fluttering wings. Not a good one either.

It seemed like none of them wanted to be the first to speak. Upon further inspection around the room, it seemed like she wasn't the only one with an obvious mutation. The other guy with wings, Gabriel, first of all. And the girl, Ariel, her skin couldn't possibly be normal. Unless she had an accident with self-tanner. Like falling into a vat of it. A really big vat. Another boy, Jack, had silver tinted skin, Angele was sure of it. Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, she tried to look at everybody, but not be obvious about it, and as a result, probably just looked like she had a twitch or something. Angele wondered how long they could sit in silence for.

It was Ariel who spoke up first, not even bothering to look up from her manga novel open in front of her. "So…Party tonight or what?" Even though her face was down, and partially obscured by her emerald green hair, the faint outlines of a smirk were obvious. Slowly raising her hand to her mouth, Angele started nibbling on the edge of her thumbnail.

She could just tell already; this was going to be one _hell _of a year.

* * *

Wooooooo? 

Yes, no, this is good, this is bad, Katie you're batshit insane?

KATIE DEMANDS FEEDBACK

Or the stabbing shall commence.

-Katie


	2. Sneaking Out & High Flight

Chapter two! Finally. I know I promised this one nearly a week ago, but stuff just kept coming up, like I had to go to my moms boyfriends house and blah, blah, blah. Anyways, it was major suckage really, but now this part is done, yay!

On the side, thank you SO much to everyone who reviewed, every single one of them absolutely made my day. Thank you! Tell your friends!

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own, or pretend to own the X-Men. All rights to Marvel. I also do not pretend to own any OC's (Used with gracious permission from my favourite people) besides Angele and Ariel. Because I own them._

**Chapter Two is dedicated to: **_Dimitri_ - As much as you don't care about TNG or being friends with me anymore, last summer, you pretty much made the experience. So...thanks and here's to you.

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**Chapter Two: Sneaking Out & High Flight**

_If God had intended us to fly, He would have given us wings.  
-Anonymous_

It was late. According to the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table--Beside her bed, of course--It was 11:30. Which would make it...Angele did a quick calculation in her mind. Which would make it around 6:30 at home. God, tomorrow was going to suck a whole lot. Jet lag was the worst. Flipping another page in her book, she wondered how long it would take for her to get adjusted to Eastern time. Probably not that long, in the grand scheme of things. Ah well. She wasn't able to sleep anyways. Excitement, heaped upon nervousness, heaped upon the fact that it was her first night in what was technically her new home and all of those factors added up to absolutely no sleep at all. At least for tonight. Thank goodness school didn't start for a few weeks...She had plenty of time to stay up late. Speaking of which...

Angele glanced at her watch. 11:30 was when Ariel was supposed to start making the rounds to gather people up. Angele was the last on the list, so she had just enough time left to fix up her hair, and pull some decent, not travel worn and gross clothes out of her closet. Putting her bookmark in place, she pushed herself off her bed and made her way towards her small bathroom. Ariel had been about fourteen different kinds of serious when she had asked about a party. Almost immediately, everyone in the room had clamored to give up suggestions for what they should do, and how they should do it. Angele had shrunk back, eventually moving out of the way to allow Ariel, Gabriel, another girl named Alianne, Jack and Dimitri to form up and start discussing. At the time, it had been around 1 in the afternoon, and it took them more than an hour to hammer out the rough details, and then the minute ones. Angele wanted to say something, wanted to be apart of the group, but what could she suggest? Mumbling under her breath, she looked around, before hearing someone speaking to her. _We should go outside..._It was a suggestion that she had said out loud almost immediately after and grinned proudly when everyone agreed upon that little detail. Angele couldn't help but feel that she was taking credit for someone else's idea. But she looked around, and there was nobody close enough to whisper. So she listened happily to the rest of the plan in the making, and couldn't stop the smile on her face when she was included. Practically skipping off to her room to finish unpacking, her mood had a dramatic upswing. Maybe making friends wouldn't be so hard!

Angele pulled her hair over her shoulder, braiding it in a rush as she slipped on a pair of white platform sandals. There. Perfect. She looked in the mirror, grinning at her reflection. At least, if nothing else, she could put together a pretty snazzy outfit. A pale blue halter top with next to no back, along with the same skirt that she had worn downstairs before. Add a pair of gold hoop earrings, a present from her parents before she left, and some golden bangle bracelets, and she was feeling very pretty indeed. Now...she just had to wait. Ariel was in charge of hustling everybody downstairs and outside, because it was easiest for her to get in and out of the building. Of course, they had to be careful; Ariel couldn't teleport inside most peoples rooms, and waiting outside was dangerous. All the dorms had locks and keys, but Miss Pryde was on dorm duty most nights. She didn't need a key. Angele, personally, thought it would be really cool to see somebody walk through walls...just not...her wall. Either way, she flopped down onto her stomach on her comfy bed, waiting. 11:35...11:38...The minutes seemed to crawl by slower the longer she sat around waiting. Of course, she was last, but still. Ah well. 11:45 rolled around, and Angele had gotten sleepy, eyes closed, when there was a sudden knock at the door. Blinking blearily for a moment or two, she yawned as she pushed herself up...and nearly fell over when she realized who it was. Tip-toeing over to her doorway, she smoothed out her braid, just in case, pulling the handle open. Standing outside her door, looking furtive and almost a little bit anxious was...Not Ariel? Angele looked confused for a moment. It was that boy...Dimitri. What? She had thought the whole thing had been planned out. Ariel would teleport into the hallway, just outside the dorm room, knock, and lead them the safe way outside. Worst came to worst...Ariel would teleport the both of them outside, although she had stated before that she hoped it wouldn't happen. Teleporting more than one person made her, in her own words, tired as all hell.

So then why was this kid here? She put her hands on her hips, opening her mouth to exclaim (or complain...one of the two) about the fact that he was here, and not outside, and he was going to get them both in trouble. Without waiting for so much as a sound, Dimitri put one finger over his lips, reached over into her doorway, and pulled her out into the hallway, motioning for Angele to shut the door behind her. Feeling slightly bewildered, she did so, staring at him. Now that they were out in the hallway, no matter how much she wanted to complain, she didn't dare, lest some teacher with very strong hearing (She was sure there was more than a few...) hear her. Dimitri avoided her gaze, before grabbing her hand, seeming slightly embarrassed. Angele blinked, staring at him harder--if that was possible-- than before. Just what in the hell did he think he was doing?! Hmph. Dimitri started walking off down the hallway, leaving Angele with no choice really, but to follow after him. As they walked(or tip-toed quietly, rather), Angele happened to glance down at their hands, curious as to why he was still holding it. There was just one tiny problem. Her hand. Was made. Of water. Holy _shit_.

Letting out a small yelp, she attempted to jerk away from Dimitri...which, thank goodness, he didn't allow, because although she hadn't figured it out yet, the moment her hand left his, it would've splattered onto the floor like normal water, leaving her with a stump, and a very complicated process to try and get it back to normal. Although to be fair, he should've warned her first. Dimitri's eyes widened as she yelped, and he suddenly slapped his free hand over her mouth, and the two of them collapsed into a puddle of water.

It was the weirdest feeling in the world to Angele. Impossible to explain what being a puddle of water felt like. Her mind was a little...thrown. How to react when you weren't really contained inside something? But then again...that just brought up too many questions to think about. Especially when one was a **puddle of freaking water on the floor.**

If she could have yelled at Dimitri...oh, you'd better believe she would've been. Without realizing it, Dimitri moved both of them down the stairs, doing the best he could to keep them both together, and moving, without losing any body parts in the carpet along the way. The wings had been a little more than he had bargained for...but he had it under control. He hoped. As long as he could keep her quiet long enough to explain after he de-liquefied them, then he would be good. But Ariel had been tired, teleporting back and forth, and Angele's room was so far from the stairs and the doors to the outside...It was just easier to do it this way. A puddle of water was a lot easier to miss than a girl with wings and a tendency to dress in white. Like she wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb in the dark hallway.

Either way, before long, the puddle had moved out to the patio in the backyard of the mansion. The party was nowhere near here, but Dimitri wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up without starting to loose bits and pieces. Slowly, but surely, the water pulled itself together, slowly reforming the boy from the feet up. As soon as his head was back to normal, he pulled up on the puddle of water, starting to reform Angele. In under a minute, he had her all put back together, and although feeling somewhat tired, he was rather pleased with himself. After all, that was the first time he tried it. Just...don't tell Angele that.

Although her body was reformed rather quickly, and mostly without incident (She could've sworn she had 7 bracelets on instead of 5 though), Angele's mind took a little longer to catch up. Her muscles weren't quite reacting right, and her knees weren't quite supporting her. Just as she thought she was going to collapse face first onto the concrete ahead of her, she felt a pair of arms slid under her armpits, supporting her, and keeping her from doing a face plant.

"Don't fall."

Well _duh_. Angele rolled her eyes, doing her best to struggle up and stay standing under her own power. Her muscle control was getting better, but...she'd probably stay wobbly for a few more minutes. Better than she had expected. Considering that less than a minute ago, she was a spot of water on the concrete. Speaking of which...

"What the _hell_ was that?!"

Dimitri sighed. He had been waiting for that. Hauling Angele onto her feet, after making sure she could stand up without stumbling, he started walking off the patio, talking as he did so.

"It was either that, or you wouldn't get to come at all."

Angele stared after him for a moment. She had been hoping he would've just been an ass so she could've stayed mad about it. But noooo, had to have a good explanation. Ugh! Looking faintly stormy for a moment, she soon realized that she should follow after him; after all, she only had a general idea of where the party was. Even if he was a stupid boy that turned her into a puddle of water without warning, quite possibly _the_ most disorienting moment of her life, **including **when she woke up with wings.

"Well...you could've warned me!"

Dimitri rolled his eyes, stopping abruptly to turn and look at the blonde girl following him. He was just a little annoyed. He went through all that trouble and exhausted himself and she was just going to stand there and complain about it! See if he helped her again. Jesus Christ. He started walking again, leaving the concrete far behind, walking across the soft green grass of the backyard, having only the moon to guide him back into the forest.

"If I had warned you, every teacher within twenty meters would've heard. Did you want to come out, or not? I volunteered, I didn't have to get you."

Angele bit down on her lip, hearing the tinge of bitterness in his voice, whatever anger she had left vanishing. Uh oh. He sounded mad. She had made him mad, hadn't she? Angele couldn't stand it when people were mad at her. Wings fluttering nervously again, she sped up her pace to stay abreast of Dimitri, staring down at her feet as she walked. And so it continued, for the next five minutes, the soft grass quickly giving way to the carpeted area of the woods behind the mansion. Chewing on her lower lip, she tossed around ideas in her mind. She could ignore him...or...well...

"Sorry." Angele crossed her arms over her chest, glancing away from Dimitri. She would just die if he looked smug about this. "Thanks for coming to get me."

She kept her face turned towards the dark forest on either side, the faint strains of music starting to reach her ears. It sounded like techno...or dance music, or something like that. Fallen leaves crunched under her feet, even in early August. It wasn't cold outside, or even cool, even though it was midnight. Angele was glad she hadn't brought a sweater or anything. Laughter sounded from a clearing up ahead, and slowly, but surely, Angele was sure she could see firelight filtering through the trees. Well. At least she knew where she was going.

Dimitri still hadn't said anything. Angele was terrified that she would look over, and see him laughing at her. Great. Just great. She knew she shouldn't have apologized, she should've known! He was just going to hold this above her head for the rest of the year, she should've predicted it.

What she didn't predict was feeling a hand at her elbow pulling her to a stop, and a voice in her ear.

"There's a big hole in the ground if you keep walking straight along the path."

Angele smiled faintly. So it wasn't quite a "you're welcome", but she'd take it.

"Alright..." She glanced over at the boy beside her, who was currently very determined to keep his eyes focused ahead of him, and nowhere near her. She used her free hand to tuck some free hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear. Without even realizing it, her wings brushed against the tree branches. They were still a little distance away from actually being able to see the clearing, but the fire lit up the surrounding area like a beacon. There was no way you could miss it. Angele only hoped that they had picked a spot far enough out for the teachers to miss. She wondered if telepathy worked while you were sleeping...

"So...You come from Egypt?"

Angele was startled back into reality by the boys voice again. An attempt at civil conversation? Well this boy was just full of surprises, wasn't he? Clearing her throat, she nodded, although nodding was rather hard to see in the dark forest. Bringing her hands together, she fiddled around with her gold bangle bracelets, 7 on one hand, 5 on the other (She was totally convinced that two were missing now), staring at the forest floor in front of her instead of at Dimitri beside her.

"Yeah...Desert and all."

She could've sworn she heard a faint chuckle from his direction.

"Really? That's cool...Ever see the pyramids?"

Angele rolled her eyes. Everybody always asked about the pyramids. There was so much more to Egypt than ancient dead people.

"Been in 'em. My parents were archaeologists, they do a lot of digs around there...It's just really hot, and dusty and stuff. Being in the same room as a three thousand year old mummy? Kind of interesting, I guess." It was, in a way. Angele absolutely adored Egyptian mythology, she had become nearly obsessed with stories about the Goddess Isis when she was 5 or 6. Stories about the ancient goddess were better than any fairytale, and if her parents had been any other, they might have found that weird. Instead, they were delighted. Angele had a golden Isis pendant on a long delicate chain, sort of a good luck charm, and she couldn't quite remember why she wasn't wearing it right now. It probably would've been a good idea. "Not my idea of a fun Saturday night though."

That was probably the longest sentence she'd said since the moment her plane touched the ground at La Guardia. For a moment, she looked surprised at herself, but quickly masked it. God forbid he know how shy she really could be. She heard another noise from his direction, and this time she was sure it was a laugh.

"Wow."

Angele lifted her gaze to Dimitri for long than a second or two since the first time she met him.

"Wow what?"

Dimitri laughed again, apparently finding something funny about what she had said. Feeling faintly miffed, Angele stopped walking, crossing her arms defensively over her chest.

"Wow _what_?"

He was going to laugh at her for being some kind of freak, wasn't he? Wasn't enough that she had wings, nooo, she had to have a weird background, compared to most people here anyways. She didn't know anybody who had hung in and around graves for most of their life.

"I was just thinking that most girls I know would panic at the thought of going into a dusty old tomb with some three thousand year old mummy. You just sounded kind of annoyed."

Angele blinked, letting her arms drop to her sides. Every time she wanted to be mad, he had to turn around and make it very hard. Turning around to walk backwards, he grinned at her, his mood apparently having vastly improved since he first went upstairs to get her.

"You coming or whaaaaAAAT!"

Dimitri disappeared from view with a crash, tripping backwards into a bush. Angele could only stare, before bursting out into gales of laughter.

"Oh...my god. Are you okay?"

Clenching a fist for a second, she relaxed it, a small ball of light, no bigger than a baseball lit up the little area, illuminating Dimitri who was currently sprawled in a bush. Groaning slightly, more out of embarrassment than actual pain, he pushed himself up onto his elbow, wincing. His pride hurt.

"Yeah..."

Angele stifled her giggles, offering him her free hand, the other one holding the ball of light aloft.

"Need a hand?"

Dimitri looked releculant for a moment, before considering the state of his bruised backside, and even worse, battered ego. Ah well. Couldn't get much worse than that anyways, even if he was accepting a hand from a girl. Putting his hand into hers, he allowed himself to be helped up, brushing off his pants the moment he stood upright. He opened his mouth to say something along the lines of "thanks", before he was oh, so rudely interrupted by a voice through the trees.

"Hey! Winged girl!"

Angele rolled her eyes, looking faintly annoyed at the (very) unimaginative nickname. Turning her attention to the right, she watched a boy, somewhat older than herself, come crashing out of the bush, staring at Dimitri who still looked somewhat disheveled thanks to his meeting with the bush, and at Angele, holding up a ball of light. She remembered Jack. The kid with the pale silver skin, not shiny and metallic like the kind of silver that her jewelry was made out of, but sort of...like...tinted silver. Kind of hard to forget him really...Couldn't remember how old he was though.

"What?" She sounded more than a little irritable.

"Riiiiight..." Jack drawled, raising an eyebrow at the two of them, drawing many conclusions as to what had been occurring moments before he pounded his way into the forest.

"Shani said one of her spirit things said you were coming. Thought you might've gotten lost or something, or maybe water boy forgot to get you..." His eyes roamed over to Dimitri, who didn't look altogether pleased at the implication that he was entirely incapable of sneaking someone out of a bedroom. Hello, he deserved a bit more credit than that.

"But I see that was entirely not the case." A faint smirk pulled against the corners of his lips, although if it was malicious or not...well, that was something Angele simply couldn't decide for herself. "Hurry up, the beer is going fast."

He turned away, crashing back through the brush, shouting out something to his fellow group members that Angele and Dimitri were alright, and like four seconds away from joining them. Angele sighed, shaking her head, muttering something about how she didn't even like beer, and couldn't someone have gotten her a coke instead? Glancing somewhat helplessly over at Dimitri, she shrugged, motioning towards the path now carved out for them by Jack's loud entrance and exit.

"Shall we?"

Dimitri met her eyes with a faint smile, nodding. Stepping ahead of Angele, he made his way towards the flickering firelight and a group full of friends. Or...hopefully they were friends. Making enemies with kids that had superpowers...yeah, not the best idea. Glancing over his shoulder at Angele, who was still harboring last minute self-doubts about this brought about by the mention of beer. She was not here to drink, and she hadn't ever really been in a situation where that was possible. But that didn't matter much to Dimitri, and he waved her on. They were here for a good time, right? Can't have that standing around in the forest, probably getting full of poison ivy. He didn't know, he wasn't good with plants and stuff.

"C'mon, we're gonna miss all the fun."

Angele relented, picking her way through the remaining underbrush.

"Fine. But if I get smashed, I'm blaming you."

Dimitri's laugh rang out through the clearing again, joining in with the laughter and conversation from the 8 other people in the clearing.

* * *

Half an hour later, a slightly more subdued group had all picked spots around the fireside, sitting on the ground, the chatter not having ceased since the moment the party started. Everybody, and everything was interesting here. Most of all, who could do what. More than once, Angele had been pestered to do some flying, and more than once, she had pestered somebody else to do _something_. Now, sandwiched between Ariel on her left, and Dimitri on her right, in the warm glow of the firelight, and the slight bout of freedom that a sip of Dimitri's beer(after he had implored her to try it; after all, Alianne had gone through so much trouble to get it, and they were going to be totally dead if/when Wolverine found out) afforded her, she was seriously considering it. After all, according to everybody, the Xavier Institute was way out in the middle of nowhere. Who was going to see her flying, especially at this time of night? Maybe someone at the mansion. But her mind hadn't processed that far ahead. Just the thought that the only civilization for miles was the mansion was intoxicating. So she could fly out here. That was very, very good. 

She grinned across the flickering flames at Gabriel, the older boy with wings. Already, just from the small amount of time she had spent talking to him, Angele could tell that she had found a kindred spirit. Gabriel had wings too, _and_ he was from across the ocean, just like her. Angele had never been to Italy, and Gabriel had never been to Egypt, but it was the fact that both of them weren't American, was an instant piece of common ground. They didn't like the McDonalds here, and neither of them were totally convinced about going to Wal-Mart, and they both agreed that food and culture was better back home. Instant friends. He shared her semi-exasperated look, although he seemed a touch more amused than she did. Gabriel had been getting the same request from everybody else all night. _Fly, fly!_

Finally, ever so slowly, he hauled himself and the bulk of his considerable wings up(the wing span was bigger than Angele's, for sure; but then again, he was also taller, and probably weighed more, so it was for a good reason), voice tinged with amusement, and an Italian accent.

"Alright, alright! I shall fly if the lovely Miss Ritaka shall join me. And only if!" He was not about to put himself in the spotlight without sharing.

All eyes turned towards a rather startled Angele. She certainly hadn't been expecting that. Oh damnit, now she was put on the spot!

"Uh...Gabriel...I don't think--" Angele's protests were rather rudely interrupted by Gabriel himself, coming around the fire to her side.

"Of course you can!" He leaned down under the pretense of helping her up, muttering into her ear. "Don't leave me hanging here." He did _not_ want to have to fly by himself in front of all these people. Besides, this would be something new. He'd never met another person with wings.

Angele bit her lip, accepting Gabriel's help as he pulled her to her feet. She brushed some pine needles and dirt off the back of her skirt(Pastel skirt dirt bad idea. Skirt flying even worse idea).

"Um...okay..." Angele looked upwards, mentally scanning for branches or something that could impede upward travel. She never had to look for branches at home, but she did have to watch for power lines, and the like. Never want to get yourself tangled up in one of those. Gabriel let go of her hand, walking a small distance away from the fire, tapping his foot as he waited for Angele to follow. Angele did so, although only after looking around at every one of the eager faces. Just for this, she was going to make everyone else show off what their powers could do too. Hmph.

Standing beside Gabriel, she flexed her wings outwards. Not quite fully grown back yet, but good enough for a short jaunt around, which she was sure this would be. Glancing at Gabe with eyebrow cocked, she motioned upwards.

"You first."

Gabriel grinned, a small spark of excitement evident in his eyes. He'd never met someone so similar to himself, and he was sure Angele felt the same way.

"Race ya. First one to the bottom of the cloud wins!" Without waiting for so much as a yes from Angele, he shot off, careening in the moonlit sky above the campfire, and the mansion. Angele gaped for a moment, before suddenly letting out a laugh, taking off after him, any other thought that had been worrying her mind left behind on the ground. She was flying again!

Pushing towards the low cloud, she caught up to Gabriel easily. He may have bigger, more powerful wings, but she was lighter, and speedier. They were almost evenly matched. Angele outstretched her arm, encountering the cool wetness of the cloud moments before Gabriel put his head through it. Shooting through the small cloud and coming out the other side rather damp, Angele let out another laugh, matching Gabriel's chuckling. Slowing her ascent, she shivered as the cool air of the higher altitude reached her, the shouts from down below barely heard. Glancing behind her shoulder at Gabriel, she grinned, throwing her hands up.

"This is amazing!"

Gabriel's guffaw reached her ears long before he did, coming up alongside her a few moments later, his voice louder than normal to be heard against the wind rushing past her ears, chilling them.

"Isn't it always?"

Angele grinned, nodding. It was always amazing. Flying was beyond anything she could ever imagine, and if there was no other reason for her wanting to stay a mutant, that was it. That was the only one she needed. Soaring through the air, completely free of anything and everything...Certainly nearly made it all worth it, didn't it?

"Oh! I slipped the surly bonds of Earth..."

Angele glanced curiously at Gabriel beside her. A smile on his face, his eyes were focused straight ahead, looking out for anything that might cause trouble.

"What was that?"

Gabriel blinked, turning his head to look at her with surprise.

"You don't know it?"

Angele shook her head, fly away bits of hair getting in her face. She was glad she had thought to braid it before coming out here, or else it would be an absolute nightmare once she got back to her dorm.

"Nope."

Gabriel shook his head, muttering something under his breath in Italian, thereby ensuring that Angele couldn't understand a word.

"It's a poem called "High Flight"...I'll have to show it to you tomorrow or something, I think the man who wrote it really understood what this--," He motioned around them, this meaning flying. Gabriel was convinced that only someone who really knew what soaring was could write a beautiful piece of work like that. "--Feels like."

Angele grinned, and nodded. Somehow, she hadn't pegged Gabriel for the poetry type, but hey. Whatever floats your boat, right? So engrossed was she with the possible workings of the boys mind, that she didn't notice when an obstruction suddenly presented itself in front of her, and she collided right into...Jack?

With a surprised yelp, and a moment or two of tumbling head over heels with the ground coming up at a sickening pace before she righted herself, she shook her head, looking upwards, wondering if she had been hallucinating.

Nope. The silver boy was still up there, a hundred or so feet above her head, waving and grinning with a touch of arrogance. It took a little bit for Angele to register that he was sitting on a silver platform of some sort. His power, presumably, she thought she remembered him saying something about silver plasma earlier that day. Pushing herself up again, she drew level with Jack, and consequently Gabriel, who didn't look too pleased.

"Hey man, you shouldn't sneak up on her like that, she could've crashed."

Jack shrugged, sitting back on his palms, the disk stretching out to meet them.

"But she didn't. It's cool."

Angele hmphed, crossing her arms and making a small noise of displeasure in her throat. The fact that he seemed so entirely unconcerned that he very easily could've sent her plummeting to her death didn't exactly sit well with her. The slight motion of bobbing up and down that accompanied her wings flapping kept her from fixing Jack with a real glare, but the feeling was there just the same. Not cool man. Not cool at all.

Jack shrugged off the negative vibes he was getting from Angeles' (and Gabriels') direction, waving at something behind the pair. "Oh, hey Shani. Didn't know you could fly."

Angele blinked, and did a mid-air pirouette to see behind her. Sure enough, there was Shani, sitting on the back of something big and white and see-through. Angele didn't know what spirit summoning meant before, when Shani had introduced herself, and received her code name. She sure as hell knew what it meant now.

Gabriel, likewise looked nearly as surprised as Angele, although his jaw absolutely dropped when he spotted Vince up beside Shani, somewhat unsteadily, apparently riding on a jet of air of his own creation. Angele laughed, crossing her arms.

"You're all copycats!"

Artie AKA Darkart swooped past in a...hang glider?! Angele's wings momentarily stopped beating the air in an effort to understand where _exactly_ he had managed to pull a hang glider from. She voiced as much, crossing her arms. Hmph.

"I drew it!"

Angele blinked. Drew it. Right. Now she had two powers figured out for sure, Shani's and Artie's. When he had said 'drawing' as his mutant ability, Angele nearly laughed. Drawing? That didn't even make sense. She could draw, any four year old could draw! Would that make Leonardo DaVinci a mutant too? Of course not. So she had secretly thought that, out of all the mutations, Artie's had to be the worst.

Oh how wrong she was. Before she knew it, Alianne had hypnotized her way onto the back of another creature of Shani's summoning, and all but 3 members of the team were airborne, wheeling around in the great moonlit sky, playing some sort of modified version of tag.

On the ground, Dimitri pushed a stick into the fire, looking distinctly disgruntled. Ariel, the orange skinned teleporter, looked less than happy, although not overly annoyed. She often stood out; this was just another way of doing that. Glancing over at Dimitri, she stood up, making her way over to the cooler, still half-full of beer, and whatever else Alianne had thought to bring out. Cracking it open, she pulled out a bottle of some sort of alcoholic something or other, glancing over at the lonesome boy by the fire. They were the only two left on the ground. Figures.

"Want something?"

Dimitri shrugged, shoving his stick into the fire again, apparently attempting to light it on fire. Ariel rolled her eyes, dropping the cooler lid. Cracking open the glass bottle of, she took a sip, making a face as it slid down her throat, not exactly fond of the startling and bitter aftertaste. New York had disgusting drinks. Plopping down on the ground by the lonesome water manipulator, she watched him for a moment or two.

"...So what are you mad about?"

Dimitri glanced up, blinking.

"What?"

Ariel shrugged, taking another sip. It tasted bad, but it was still a drink.

"What are you mad about?"

Dimitri stared at her for a moment or two, the pigment of her skin more pronounced by the flickering flames of the fire. They had plenty of firewood to last them another hour or so, maybe long depending on how they rationed it out.

"I'm not mad."

Ariel rolled her eyes again, fixing him with an unreadable stare.

"Let me re-phrase. Are you mad because you're not up there with _them_--" She motioned upwards, the laughter and shouted jokes of their classmates echoing in the trees around them. "--Or are you mad because you're not up there with _her_."

Dimitri stared at Ariel again, swiftly dropping his gaze soon after.

"I'm not mad."

Ariel sighed.

"Jesus Christ, I thought we'd last at least a month before somebody was tempted to tap that. That being any of them, not necessarily her." Ariel mentioned, just to clarify.

Dimitri looked a little flustered, and more than a bit annoyed.

"You're blunt." He stated, very obviously, since he was hard pressed to think of something else to say that wouldn't incriminate him...or...not not incriminate him. He knew how girls talked. Boy, did he ever know.

Ariel laughed, taking another swig out of her bottle.

"Comes with the territory babe, comes with the territory. Just...try and keep it in your pants, okay?"

Ariel had to duck as a semi-burnt stick came flying at her head.

* * *

Okay, so originally it was going to be a LOT longer, but as of right now, I hit a creative wall(Not just in this, but in all my RPs too, dunno what it's about really, because I'm totally psyched about writing this; It's my outlet for fluff and explosions.) Anyways, the original third part of this chapter will become part one of the next. 

The good news? I already have it written out, yay!

The bad news? Now I need to write the rest of it.

Le sigh. I should go see a movie or something.

-Katieface


	3. Truth or Dare & the Erastaz Shower

I KNOW, I KNOW, this is way late. I know I said it would be done after Harry Potter came out, but a whole bunch of stuff happened between then and now, and I lost my muse for a little while, and I wasn't sure where I wanted this chapter to go and stuff...But it's HERE. I'm in Newfoundland now, so I have _tons _of time to work on another chapter.I'm actually halfway through the fourth already.

Well, okay, one third. BUT IT'S PRETTY FAR! And since I have no internets (-tear-) to distract me, it's coming along rather speedily. And I'm quite excited for it actually, it's going to be good. But, it's not here yet, and chapter three is! HURRAH

So I suggest you read it before I change my mind and take it back.

**Disclaimer: _No, they're not mine, please stfu._**

**Chapter Three is dedicated to:** _Da - _Because you've been my therapist about my parents, and you are disgustingly logical. And I stayed up until 5 AM to RP with you, so you'd damn well better be grateful. Thanks.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Three: Truth or Dare & the Erastaz Shower**

_Fate chooses our relatives, we choose our friends._**  
****-**_Jacques Delille_

Another twenty minutes or so later, and the newest group of X-Students had, for the most part, grounded themselves again. Resuming their places around the fire, most, if not all of them looked a little flushed, and a little giggly, with the notable exception of Dimitri and Ariel, although Dimitri looked marginally happier that the festivities had moved ground side again. He had been getting lonely. Angele had taken out her braid, and was now attempting to re-do it, and carry on a conversation with Alianne, sitting two places down from her.

Jack looked around the circle, taking a swig of the beer he had swiped. Boredom was setting in already, and he felt the need to spice things up a little. Sitting around and talking was fun for him for about...10 minutes. Those ten minutes had passed 15 minutes ago. Sighing, he shifted around on the ground a few times, wracking his brain for an idea, for something that would make this all the better...Not that flying before anybody else had thought of it wasn't already pretty good. But still...something...something classic...

"Truth or dare!"

There was silence for a moment or two, before collective clamoring started up, mostly shouts of agreement, laughter, and the sudden retelling of memories from other games of truth or dare from their past lives...Angele sat, partially stunned, while Alianne beside her, laughed and shouted out ideas, before the game could even get started.

"Truth or...dare?" Angele looked around, faintly bewildered. She'd never played the game before, her friends didn't do that back at home. They probably had something similar, but for now, she had no idea what the game was about. Alianne stared at the blonde girl beside her with incredulity, blinking for a few moments.

"Truth or dare...? You've never played?"

Angele shook her head, deft fingers tying off the end of her long braid. She could sit on it, if she really wanted to.

"No..."

Alianne stared at her again, before breaking out into a wide grin. Ohhh, this was going to be fun. A T or D virgin, as it were.

"You'll love it. Basically, somebody starts, and picks somebody else, and the person that they picked has to choose either a truth, or a dare. Either answer a question, any question, truthfully, or do the dare. And there's a chicken clause, so if you opt out of the dare, or the truth, that's you're punishment."

Angele blinked, pushing some of her short bangs out of her face.

"...Sounds dangerous."

Alianne laughed, shrugging.

"It's fun, you'll see."

By this time, the details had been hammered out by just about everyone else around them. It was easily decided that the chicken clause was streaking; when, and where, would be decided at the time. Angele was becoming more and more uneasy about this game; it seemed like it could only ever end in embarrassment. And the last thing she wanted to happen was to find herself in an embarrassing situation. She was quite sure she'd never recover from it, if she got embarrassed, she would never be able to show her face to these people again. Jack spoke up loudly again, his voice taking over the clamor of the small crowd in front of him.

"Who goes first?"

Alianne's hand shot up before anybody else could even think of their first truth question, or dare challenge. Obviously, she came prepared. Sitting up straight, she looked around the circle with a smug grin. Everybody else, although the mood didn't change, shrank back just a little bit. Nobody wanted to be her first victim. Searching the circle again, Alianne's eyes finally landed on Shani, directly across the circle from herself, and her smile turned predatory. Ali was an Truth or Dare _expert_, and she wasn't about to let anybody forget.

"Shani!"

Shani looked startled, while everybody else visibly relaxed. A moment later, a pinched look crossed Shani's face, regretting the fact that she had to go first.

"Alright, fine." She said, sounding faintly exasperated. Shani didn't have to agree, it wasn't like she really had a choice in the matter either way.

Alianne looked faintly pleased with herself, sitting back on her palms.

"Truth or dare Shani?"

Shani sighed, shrugging.

"...Truth." She said, after a long moment. She grinned cheekily when she caught sight of Alianne's faintly put out expression.

"You're no fun at all. Hmph..." Her face settled into a thinking sort of expression, now that her plans for a dare had been totally trashed. Chickens they were, the lot of them!

"Alright...Shani..." Alianne's slow grin was coming back to her, and with every notch upward it took, Shani looked more and more nervous.

"...How many guys have you kissed?" Shani blinked for a moment, looking at Alianne quizzically. Certainly not the kind of question she had been anticipating. That was almost...mundane.

"Three. You suck Alianne."

Alianne made a face, shrugging.

"It was the best I could come up with on short notice!"

Shani rolled her eyes, gazing around the circle.

"Yeah, yeah, my turn..."

And so it went. Angele watched, partially amused, but mostly in horror at what was going on. She could only hope, and pray that nobody remembered she was here, or that she even existed...This game was fun to watch, but she wasn't exactly jumping up and down for a chance to go next. Picking up a stray water bottle, she tuned out of the conversation for a moment, idly wondering what time it was. Awfully late, no question.

"...Angele!"

Choking on the water in her mouth, she coughed, suddenly alert. Looking to her left, she spotted a grinning silver-skinned Jack, tapping his fingers expectantly.

"Well? Truth or dare angel girl, come on, hurry it up."

Angele slowly turned away, her eyes looking at everyone else, as everyone else was looking expectantly back at her. Oh dear. Oh. Dear. What was she supposed to choose? She really wanted to fit in, and make a cool choice...truth was considered weak, wasn't it? But dare...Dare was going to get her in a lot of trouble. Still...whatever Jack could think of wasn't that bad, it was Alianne that you had to watch out for, she had come up with some doozies.

"Um...dare...?"

She fiddled with a piece of grass nervously, not exactly happy with the look on Jack's face. Angele felt like she had suddenly walked into a trap, and that was not a pleasant feeling in the least.

"I dare you..." Jack gazed around the group, as though thinking. Oh, he already had an idea in mind. A very good one. Angel girl needed to loosen up a little anyways, couldn't hurt, right?

"To...shower with Dimitri!" The smirk on his face couldn't have gotten any bigger.

Angele jerked suddenly, ripping the blade of grass held between her hands in half.

"_What?!_ "

An outbreak of laughter came from all sides of the group, and a cat-call or two. A furious blush raced up Angele's cheeks, covering her face. She wasn't even going to _look_ beside her. Because if Dimitri was laughing, she was going to kill him. Crossing her arms over her chest defensively, she tried to think of a way out of it.

"It's not funny! What are my options?"

Jack looked entirely too amused with this. Ooh, if she could just get her hands on him now...

"Streaking. Through. The teachers dorms."

Oh. My. _God._ Was he serious? He couldn't be serious. There was no way in **hell** that he actually expected her to SHOWER with Dimitri. OR go streaking. It wasn't happening! Nuh uh, no way, she had...she had dignity and morals! And a whole bunch of other reasons!

"You can't be serious."

Jack didn't even bother answering her, waving a hand in her general direction. Angele squeaked as she felt herself being pushed upwards, no doubt thanks to the help of some silver plasma. A quick glance to her right confirmed that (an equally shell-shocked looking) Dimitri had been pushed into a standing position alongside her.

"Well, hurry it up."

Angele clenched a fist, all thoughts of propriety forgotten. She _really_ wanted to smack that smug look off Jack's face. He was such an ass, and she had only known him for a few hours. Looking around the circle of eager faces, some of them still shaking with mirth, one or two (Shani's in particular) torn between laughing, and feeling sorry for Angele's plight, she really felt like she had no choice. One little corner of her mind was screaming for acceptance from these people, and...well, if this was the way to do it, then...this was the way to do it. In a sudden turn about, she twisted, seized Dimitri by the wrist, and without a further word, propelled them both out of the clearing and back towards the mansion. God, her parents would have a fit if they knew what was going on...All the more reason to _never ever ever __**ever **_even hint at this. She would have to remember to warn everybody else, that if they ever brought this sort of thing up again, Angele **would **be beating their faces in. Humiliation such as this should never be repeated, or mentioned.

"Come on..." She muttered, creeping into the mansions backyard from the forest. Dimitri complied silently, quickly picking up on the fact that if he said anything, he would probably be shouted at. He was torn between being shell shocked at the fact that Jack had included him in a dare like this, and adolescent pleasure at being included in a dare like this. Hormones were a powerful thing. He took a few steps ahead of her, turning himself into liquid as he did so. Looking back before his head collapsed into a puddle, he caught a brief glimpse of Angele's face, masked with fear. She was desperately trying to make like she didn't care that most of her body was in a puddle of water on the ground, because she knew that this was the fastest way inside the building. But still...it was scary. If Dimitri still had a mouth to talk out of, he would've told her something encouraging.

Like he only lost a finger that one time, and he had gotten waaaaay better at this since then.

Well. Maybe it was better he kept his mouth shut.

* * *

Angele flicked some invisible dirt off her shoulder, noticing that, once again, she was down another bracelet. She sat down on her bed for a moment, rubbing her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. This was stressful, in a bad way. She didn't want to get into any sort of trouble...and she was _sure_ that this would go under the list of things not to spend your time doing in the X-Mansion. Showering with strange boys, that is. Maybe she should've thought this through a little bit more, truth or dare was obviously not a game to be under estimated. 

Dimitri, on the other hand, was rather interested in poking around her room. Something that she had the feeling she should be annoyed at, but since all her underwear was still safely packed away inside the suitcase under her bed, it didn't really bother her all that much. Not that there was all that much to look at in her room. She hadn't had anytime to put up pictures, or...anything. Mostly just clothes dumped where ever she thought they should go. Which was anywhere that wasn't the floor. For now, anyways, her room never stayed clean for long, and she didn't see why that should change now. The awkward silence continued for another few minutes, a few glances being exchanged between the pair, Angele on her bed, Dimitri standing...well, where ever he felt like standing at the moment. Apparently, they had the same idea, because they both started speaking at the same time.

"We should probably--"

"You don't have to do--"

Angele blushed, lapsing back into silence. Dimitri cleared his throat, starting his sentence over again.

"You don't have to do the dare if you don't want."

Angele blinked.

"But...then...I thought..."

Dimitri let out another chuckle, looking at her from the corner of his eyes as he inspected a wall.

"You've really never played it before, have you?"

Angele sighed, pulling at a thread from her bedspread. She didn't like it all that much, maybe she'd spend some of the money sent along with her on a new one...

"No. Is it that obvious?"

Dimitri laughed again, and once more, Angele didn't know if she should laugh along, or be rather annoyed at it.

"Pretty much. Doesn't matter, they'll never know. You'll get a reputation as a daredevil, take-no-prisoners chick, and I'll get my rightfully deserved one as a ladies man, and we can pretty much sit up here and eat chips. When I get some that is, does it matter what kind? I'm pretty sure all the good ones are taken, besides dill pickle and plain."

Dimitri made a face, like having to chose between dill pickle and plain flavored chips was the worst possible decision ever, and the simple thought of it was going to give him an ulcer. Angele simply blinked again.

"Um...plain...?"

Dimitri nodded, and with a sly smile in her direction, collapsed into a puddle of water on the floor, despite Angele's audible gasp of surprise. She _really_ wished he'd stop doing that, it freaked her out. Glancing around her room for another moment, she heaved a sigh, and hauled herself off her bed. Well...She couldn't just sit around and wait, she might as well...oh, I don't know, take off her make up, put on pajamas. She was pretty sure that they wouldn't be heading back outside to the fire tonight anyways, which was actually fine with her, because she wasn't looking forward to the teasing that all this was going to garner her tomorrow. Yawning, she tugged the ponytail holder off the end of her braid and let it slowly undo itself as she bent over the sink in the bathroom, scrubbing her makeup off. She pulled a towel over, and patted her face dry, before leaving it on the counter. Bah. It was too late to clean now, she'd do it in the morning...if she ever got up in the morning, that is.

Shedding items of clothing as she went, she pulled open the door to her closet, and rifled around for her pajamas, that she had been sure had been in here. Tapping her foot impatiently against the hardwood floor, Angele frowned. Stupid pajamas, one day and she had already lost them, go figure.

"Alright, so they didn't have any plain, but they _did_ have—woah!"

Angele screeched at the top of her lungs and flung herself into the closet, at the same moment that Dimitri turned around to face the other wall so fast, he probably could've sued her for whiplash.

"Don't you _knock?!_"

Angele was breathing hard and fast, hidden behind the door of her closet, squashed right into whatever clothes she had hung up already, her wings taking up more room than she could spare.. She was sure her face had never been this red, not even before when she'd been dared. She turned her head to the side to bury her face in her pajamas. Oh, hey, that's where her pajamas were!

Dimitri, on the other hand, was torn between feeling rather proud of himself (Hellooo, half-naked girl! ...If only from behind.) and feeling really embarrassed. And a little bit scared that her screech had woken up half the mansion, and he would be killed once discovered.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I thought knocking would be too loud, how was I supposed to know?!"

Angele huffed, pulling her long shirt over her head (it didn't have any sleeves, and the back was_ just_ right for her wings), and stepping into a comfortable pair of cotton shorts. She was going to have to get heavy duty pajamas for when winter came around, but she hadn't needed them at home. Cold? In Egypt? Yeah, right.

"Yeah...well..."

He did have a point, how could he have known? Although maybe next time, she'd get changed just a little faster. Or better yet, don't risk it at all, and just sleep in her clothes. That would probably be best. She'd keep that in mind. Finally inching the closet door open, she stepped back into the room, doing her best to keep a dignified air about her, as Dimitri hadn't just seen her standing in her underwear from behind. At least she'd been wearing cute underwear, yellow and purple hearts with...

Ahem. Nevermind.

She made her way over to her bed, tucking her wings in carefully behind her. Dimitri was already pulling the bag of chips open, shaking them a little, before offering them over to her first. Ever the consummate gentleman, he was. Angele sighed, folding her legs under her as she sank onto the end of her bed, her wings lazily hanging from her back. She reached into the bag of chips, and pulled out a couple, making a little pile on the bedspread in front of her.

"So..."

Dimitri, who was busily stuffing his face with the chips (All dressed was one of his favourites, that much Angele could gather from the way he was gorging), took a few moments before he answered her.

"...So tell me about yourself."

Angele blinked, popping another chip into her mouth despite looking faintly bewildered.

"About...myself? Like what?"

Dimitri shrugged, taking another handful.

"I don't know, where are you from, how did you get here, what's your favourite colour, and do you want to be my friend?"

Angele gaped at him for another moment, before her eyes narrowed accusingly.

"You stole that from TV, I've heard it before!"

Dimitri laughed, albeit somewhat quieter than he had outside.

"So sue me. But I'm serious, I've never met anybody from Egypt before. Besides staring undead mummies in the face, what do you like to do?"

Angele chewed on a few more chips, buying her some extra time to consider his question totally. It was a loaded one, actually, because what she _liked _to do, and what she was _allowed _to do had become very separate things since these...things had sprouted out of her back.

"Well...when I'm at home, I like to read...And watch TV and stuff, listen to music. I used to take dance lessons, when I was younger, but I was absolute rubbish, I just thought the costumes were pretty...Hm...Oh! I liked to play soccer, a lot actually, but I haven't been on a team in..." Angele lapsed into silence for a moment, somewhere between reminiscing, and calculating. "...In a very long time."

Dimitri watched her, crunching (somewhat obnoxiously, in Angele's mind) on a chip for a few moments.

"Soccer? Really? I didn't peg you for the sports playing kind of girl. More like the...shopping and make-over-giving, no offense."

Angele blushed a little, managing a faint grin.

"Well, I like that to." If her extensive wardrobe was any indication. She liked shopping far more than she should've, but she neglected to mention it accidentally-on-purpose. Angele thought it made her sound rather shallow, although she couldn't for the life of her figure out why sounding shallow in front of this boy was such a bad thing.

"What about you? You've practically got my life story on hand, and I don't know anything besides what you told Miss Frost earlier today." Or...yesterday, actually, since it was past midnight, but whatever.

Dimitri shrugged.

"I don't know, not much to tell. I live with my mom a little bit further upstate, and...I like watching sports on TV, and...swimming," He wrinkled his nose in Angele's direction when she started giggling. "Yeah, swimming, but not competitively or anything. I dunno, my existence so far has been pretty dull...Except for coming here of course, this place is awesome." He sounded so excited to be there. Angele watched him curiously.

"How is it awesome?" Angele still hadn't made up her mind about Xaviers. On one hand, she was happy to be here, happy to be around other people who understood exactly what it was like to not fit in. Plus, she got along rather well with Shani and Alianne, and it was always nice to have new friends. On the other hand though...She couldn't help but feel somewhat sequestered from the rest of the world. Hidden away, as it were. And she missed her friends, and especially her parents, she missed them terribly. A fact, that suddenly made her eyes prick with tears, and she turned away, her good mood rapidly deflating. This fact was apparently not lost on Dimitri, who stopped mid-sentence (he had been going on about how awesome Xavier's was) blinking at her, half-wondering if it was something he said.

"You alright?"

Angele wiped at her eyes furiously with the back of her hand. Twice, in one day! It had barely been twenty-four hours since her parents had seen her off at the airport, not even one full day, and she was already bawling about it! _Get a grip Angele, don't cry, you'll scare the boy. _She nodded, looking back at him with a watery smile.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine, sorry, what were you saying?"

Dimitri hardly looked mollified by her rather bad deflection of his question.

"You sure? You don't look alright."

Angele sniffed, the ball of emotions in her stomach shooting up from an orange to a watermelon in the space of a few seconds. She nodded again.

"Yes, I'm fine!" She snapped, trying to deflect the questions again. "I'm perfectly alright, I just miss...I miss my parents, but I'm fine, I'm really fine." This, of course, was not exactly convincing, especially taking into the fact that her voice broke in the middle of her sentence, and more tears were leaking out of the corner of her eyes. Dimitri, who fortunately had the emotional range of not just a teaspoon, but an entire cup, leaned over to her, embracing her in a sort of awkward hug, crushing the chips between them in the process.

"It'll be okay Angele, don't cry..." He sounded faintly pained. Crying girls were quite beyond his realm of expertise, the ladies man though he was. "Please...please don't, you're making me feel bad."

Angele laughed slightly at the pleading note in his voice, leaning back some to disentangle herself from him, wiping her eyes again.

"Sorry...I've just never been so far without my parents, y'know? And I've never slept in a place without them..."

Dimitri nodded wisely. Even if he hadn't known, he was at least smart enough to know that disagreeing would get him nowhere. Glancing around the room, he pulled himself off her bed, and snatched up an extra blanket that had been left on the dresser.

"Tell you what. Since you are, by far, the nicest person I have met here--" Which wasn't a lie, really, everybody else seemed to be rather rude at times, and although Angele had been rude as well, she had apologized for it later, which made it all better really. "--And if you will spare me one of those pillows, I will sleep in here tonight, just to keep you company."

Angele stared at him for a moment, through red-rimmed eyes.

"You're...serious? Won't that get you in trouble?"

Dimitri shrugged, flashing her another grin.

"So what? It won't be the last bit of trouble I get into anyways, what's the worst Miss Frost could do?"

Angele had a feeling that Miss Frost could do a _lot _worse than he could imagine, but the offer of not being alone, at least for the first night, was more than she could resist. Shifting towards the headboard of her bed, she seized a pillow, throwing it across the room to him.

"Alright, you have yourself a deal. But if you get caught, and in trouble, then don't say I didn't warn you. Because I did."

Dimitri laughed, throwing the pillow onto the floor.

"Yeah, alright."

Angele smiled, wiping her eyes for the last time, throwing back the covers on her bed.

"Alright then..."

She could no longer see Dimitri, being that he had found his spot on the floor, and was currently shifting around, trying to find the most comfortable spot. She waited a few moments, until the shifting stopped.

"All set then?"

Dimitri stretched in an exaggerated manner, putting his hands behind his head.

"Yep. Hit the lights angel-girl."

The lights went out first, and he found himself hit in the face with a stuffed bear next. A muffled voice came from above.

"_Don't_ call me angel-girl."

Angele had stretched out on her bed, her face in her pillow. Lying on her stomach was the only way she could really get to sleep, sleeping on her back was out of the question, and if she slept on her side, sometimes her wings would overbalance, and she'd tumble right onto the floor. She heard a quiet chuckle from the direction of her floor, and rolled her eyes, before closing them again, asleep before she could think of another witty comeback.

Dimitri lay awake on the floor for another few moments, thinking. It was a minute or so before he turned onto his side, pulling the blanket up to his chin, but once he did, he was gone. Thank goodness Angele had fallen asleep first, and was a deep sleeper. She'd never manage it over his snores now.

* * *

The sun was bright. Very, _very_ bright. Even for a girl who had worked with light since she was 6. Angele squinted through her (rather fashionable) white rimmed sunglasses as she hurried down the path leading to the mansion pool outside. It was around 12:30 in the afternoon, and the sun was in full swing. Wearing a pale pink bikini top, matching bottoms, a pastel yellow wrap around her waist and absolutely slathered in sunscreen, she couldn't help but smile as she walked along. Sure, she was tired. Staying up late had been a bad idea, and her body hadn't quite adjusted to the jet lag yet, but she was happy. Around 10 that morning, Alianne had knocked on her door, and even though she was nursing a small hangover, had told Angele that in no uncertain terms, she was expected to make an appearance down at the pool sometime that afternoon, or face the consequences. And so, when Angele had _finally_ pulled herself out of bed a half hour later, dragged her lazy ass into the bathroom for a real shower, dried her hair, shoved some toast down her throat, and stepped out into the blinding sunshine, it was already past noon, and she hoped she wasn't late.

Stepping around the corner, she was delighted to be greeted by a chorus of voices. Alianne and Shani even sat up from their places on the lawn chairs, wincing as they did so. Direct sunlight never did bode well for those with headaches the size of Texas. In the pool, Ariel lay stretched out on a pool mattress, while Artie (in a pair of ridiculously over sized sunglasses) lounged about in an alarmingly large inner tube. Vince was sitting on the steps, submerged up to his chest in the cool, clear water of the pool, while Gabriel (who gave Angele a rather cheery wave) who had the same problem as Angele, sat on the edge, dipping only his feet into the blue waters below. Angele sighed wistfully as she caught sight of the pool, dragging over another lawn chair to lay beside Shani and Alianne. Ariel's pool mattress drifted closer to the edge, and all three girls on land made adjustments to include her in their conversation. There were only three members missing from the mini pool party, and nobody seemed to mind much. They'd show up sooner or later, of course, I mean who else were they going to hang out with? Better to stick together like this, in their own little group. It was better like that.

Angele scooped up some salsa from a bowl placed precariously close to the edge of the pool with a nacho, and shoved it rather unceremoniously into her mouth. Stretched out on her stomach, the head of the lawn chair was at the edge of the pool, mirroring Shani and Alianne's. Ariel drifted between them, sometimes close to Shani, sometimes visiting Angele, but more often than not, wherever the damn hell she felt like being. Girls, being girls, kept shooting surreptitious glances over at the guys, who knew that it was safer to stay on this side of the pool, at least for now, and giggling, recounting various tales of anything that they could think of. After laughing herself half to death over Ariel's tale of something to do with a rubber chicken and a lot of whiskey, Angele shifted in her spot, watching the other three girls, rather than contributing. She didn't have that many good stories to tell, and it was so much more fun listening to them trade tales, even though she felt scandalized just listening to some of them. Finally Alianne's eyes came to rest on the blond girl, and she grinned.

"SO Angele...spill the beans. How was he? Was it good? First time, eh?"

Angele blinked, smiling like an idiot, whatever Alianne was trying to get at obviously not dawning on her. She scooped up some more salsa with another nacho, trying her best not to drop any into the pool; she didn't think that Miss Frost would be that pleased if she had to call a pool cleaner.

"The sex, duh."

Angele suddenly had nacho chip in places that no nacho chip should be. Namely, up her nose. Coughing and hacking for a good minute (Nearly knocking the bag of chips into the pool, saved only by the timely intervention of Ariel, and her magic pool mattress) Angele drew in a huge breath, her eyes wide.

"Who told you that I did...that I did _that?!_" Because whoever did would CERTAINLY be hearing from her lawyers or something. Wasn't it illegal to do that? Wasn't lying about other people bad? Lies! Lies and slander it was!

Alianne, unaware that she had perhaps offended Angele so greatly, shrugged.

"Jack told me. Said he woke up early for somethin', saw Dimitri doing the walk of shame from your bedroom at 6 in the morning--" Angele, in some dim corner of her mind, put two and two together, and figured out that was why he hadn't been there when she woke up. Distinctly relieved, and very annoyed at the same time, she was starting to think it would've been better if he just stayed. "--And heard the whole story, straight from the horses mouth."

Angele turned a rather delicate shade of scarlet, finally cluing Alianne in. She looked rather surprised, and them half ashamed.

"You..." She sighed, rubbing her eyes. "You didn't do it, did you? God, Alianne, such a huge mouth!" She opened one eye, peering at Angele who hadn't said anything, but was rather, breathing very hard again, muttering something darkly under her breath. "I'm so sorry, I told Jack that you didn't seem like that kind of girl, that was more Shani's territory—ow!" That comment had earned her a sharp kick to her shin. "--And he couldn't _possibly _have heard what he thought he did. But he insisted, so I thought...I thought it'd be okay to ask...Sorry."

It took Angele a few moments to gather her thoughts, looking around at the three faces, which were semi-anxious, waiting for her reaction.

"How...how many people did he tell?"

Alianne glanced around the circle, and then extended her gaze over to the boys on the other side of the pool. She winced slightly, looking back at Angele. Angele blinked, looking over at the other side of the pool, horrified comprehension dawning again.

"Did he tell **everybody?!**" Her voice rose to near-shriek levels as she stood up. This definitely caught the attention of the small group at the other end of the pool, all of whom looked slightly guilty, as though they had been caught doing something they shouldn't have.

Alianne sighed.

"Well...he—Jack--thought everybody would've known already. The way he told it, Dimitri looked pretty proud of himself, going on about being a "ladies man" and stuff like that."

Angele took to pacing back and forth on the concrete, trying to process this information through the red haze of anger in her mind. How _could _he?! After he said all that! After he had seemed like such a decent guy. She snorted. This was the furtherest from decent that anybody could get. This was downright despicable, and she was going to see to it that nobody ever fell into Dimitri's stupid little trap ever again. Her face was burning red from the humiliation that everybody seemed to have believed Jack's words. Did she really seem like that? Were her skirts too short? Oh God, maybe she shouldn't have worn a bikini...

She paused as a horribly familiar head came bobbing into view. Dimitri appeared around the corner, dressed in swim trunks, and waving cheerfully to the gang congregated around the pool. He seemed slightly disconcerted when nobody waved back at him, instead gazing at him with a mournful expression, like they were watching a cow walking to slaughter. He had yet to catch sight of Angele and her thunderous expression, standing right behind him.

"Dead man walking." Artie said with a shake of his head. Dimitri just looked plain confused, taking a few steps closer to the pool, just to make sure he had heard right.

"What?" His tone was innocent, but Angele wasn't fooled. Artie just sighed, gesturing for him to turn around. He did so, pleasantly surprised to spot Angele standing right behind him, ignoring for the moment the way her arms were crossed defiantly over her chest, or the way she was looking at him, as if she hoped he'd drop dead right there.

"Oh, hey Angele--" A loud slap reverberated through the air before he could even think of finishing his sentence. He didn't move for a moment, nobody moved for a moment, his head still turned in the direction of the slap, Angele's hand suspended absurdly in the air.

"Don't you _ever_ talk to me again, do you hear me Dimitri Delgado?! Don't _EVER _talk to me again!" Her voice was nigh hysterical, and Dimitri could only stare at her like she had gone mad. Which, was quite possible, actually.

"Angele, what--?" He was cut off yet again as a pair of small white hands placed themselves against his chest, and with a surprising amount of strength for a girl that hadn't even started her training, shoved him backwards into the pool. He emerged from the surface, more startled than before.

"I said don't talk to me!"

"What the hell is going on?!" Nobody seemed to want to answer him, instead averting their eyes, looking at the ground, the sky, each other...just...not at the scene unfolding in front of them. Angele sent another deadly glare in his direction, before turning around. With a small flourish of her hands, a flare of bright light scooped up her skirt, and the bag of nachos, depositing them into her hands. Without another word to Dimitri, or her captive audience Angele Ritaka stormed off towards the dorms, not even sparing a glance backwards.

* * *

Tee hee. 

Alright, so I enjoyed writing Angele getting angry _much _more than I should've. But it was excellent fun, yes yes. This was the longest chapter, by far, being 13 pages in length on Open Office. Once I got into the swing of things, it was rather fun to write. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Read and review dears, read and review.

Until next time (which won't be that long, PROMISE.),

-iKatie


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